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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22855696">Anvil Chorus</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merkwerkee/pseuds/Merkwerkee'>Merkwerkee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Being Bruno Hamilton [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Masters of the Metaverse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Minor Character Death, Whumptober 2019, during his time in the Vietnam War</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 08:40:28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,202</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22855696</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merkwerkee/pseuds/Merkwerkee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Bruno started his tenure under the command of Jaxun with a dependable team. War makes for personnel changes</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Being Bruno Hamilton [6]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1643020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Anvil Chorus</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The knife made an unpleasant sucking noise as he pulled it out of his side, followed by a flow of dark red blood.</p><p>Staff Sergeant Alexei Daniels, call-sign “Anvil” - Rex, to anyone who had the right to call him by his first name - grimaced in pain even as he shoved the pressure bandage into place and tied it off hurriedly. The North Korean who’d gotten a lucky swing in had gotten a new hole in his head in return, but that still left Rex with a deep hole where one wasn’t supposed to be and less than a day left to finish the op. Red was already starting to peek through the bandage even as he surveyed his handiwork, and he let his shirt fall with a grimace before heading back to the others.</p><p>It was a four-man squad on the inside this time; the usual suspects, of course. Lieutenant Jack Tunstall, call-sign “Pick”, Corporal Frederic Weber, call-sign “Chisel”, and Sergeant Bruno Hamilton, call-sign “Hammer.” Together the four of them made up one of Jaxun’s favorite sabotage teams, usually paired up with Staff Sergeant Michael "Boots" Hurley’s distraction team, which tended to have a maximum of eight guys depending on who was in the hospital at any given time (currently a six-man team as PFCs Frances “Laces” Turner and Tomas “Taps” Hawk were down for a broken arm and a broken ankle, respectively).</p><p>Rex’d been dubious of Hamilton when Jaxun had first assigned him to them. Hamilton’d just been acquired by Jaxun for the unit, and it’d been their first run together. Rex had looked into his records as a matter of course, and found an excellent operative and a good man - and that’d worried him. This wasn’t the type of unit where you wanted good men; this was the kind of unit that wanted every bastard and scoundrel it could get its hands on. Men who’d use any means necessary to get the job done, who could leave behind impediments without batting an eye whether that impediment was a civilian or an injured comrade.</p><p>But Hamilton had proved himself to be a good and competent soldier, whatever his person feelings were, and he’d gotten on with the team like several warehouses, a bridge, two depots, and a mansion on fire. Hamilton didn’t need to leave people behind because he was good enough to get the job done no matter what, and Rex could respect the hell out of that kind of competence. If it wasn’t for his rigid adherence to authority and rank, Rex could see him making an excellent field officer; as it was, he was an asset to every team he was attached to.</p><p>Hamilton cocked an eyebrow at him as he came back, but Rex just shook his head. Wasn’t like any of them was a band-aid; first they’d finish the mission, then he’d worry about the new ventilation he’d acquired. Hamilton didn’t appear convinced, but let it go anyway.</p><p>“You ready, Anvil?” Tunstall’s voice was deep but neutral; Rex suspected he knew more than he was letting on, but nodded anyway. “Right. Let’s go.” Tunstall didn’t wait to see if they would follow, he simply turned and left while Weber fell naturally in at his left flank and Rex, after a momentary pause, took up the right flank.</p><p>Hamilton fell in behind, and Rex could feel the silent concern in the taller man’s gaze against the back of his head like walking away from the sun in the evening. He give him the hand signal for “knock it off” as subtly as he could; they had a job to do.</p><p>The first part of the plan went off without a hitch. Their target was a compound tucked deep into the jungle and half-underground to boot, where some kind of research was happening that Jaxun didn’t want happening and made their job to stop from happening. To make life more problematic, Lexington wanted as much of the research as they could take intact and whatever Jaxun’s pet spook wanted, he got.</p><p>Boots’ squad would be outside, waiting. They’d only start in on the perimeter defenses when the alarms started sounding; if they started the distraction early, there was too much of a chance that the place would start destroying the very research Lexington was so desperate to get his grubby little paws on.</p><p>They’d spent four days scouting the place, and after some discussion Tunstall and Weber would be the ones wielding the silenced pistols deemed necessary for the job. Their objective was to clear a path and carry whatever research ended up being found, with Hamilton and Rex being the ones with bags full of explosives and the duty of making sure they ended up in all the most inconvenient spots for the enemy. It had just been sheer bad luck that they’d happened upon an unexpected patrol on their way into the base, but the silenced pistols had done their work well - if not quite fast enough to suit Rex.</p><p>He suppressed a wince as his side twinged, a little warmth trickling down into his waistband to soak into his pants with the rest. The sensation of soaked cloth rubbing against his skin was irritating, the light-headedness worrying, and Hamilton’s constant “covert” glances frankly annoying. If they had any time, Rex would have stopped and at least re-done the damn bandage with something that wasn’t soaked - but right now, deep in the enemy encampment was not the time or place and Hamilton could shove his mother hen routine where the sun didn’t shine.</p><p>Feeling eyes on him again, Rex whipped around and gave Bruno a fierce glare. Caught, Hamilton brazened it out and gave Rex the slow up-and-down like he was a blond bombshell. Fortunately for Rex’s peace of mind, the injury was on the side of his body away from Hamilton and the younger man got nothing but a silent reprimand for his troubles.</p><p>At least it didn’t take long after that for Tunstall and Weber to be done ransacking the office they were in and they moved on. They did two more offices and a laboratory-come-machine-shop that had sinister, gleaming machines hooked to what looked like over-sized fuel cells before Tunstall gave them the nod; they’d gotten all they could carry, time to bring the place down.</p><p>Hamilton and Rex set to work with practiced efficiency, making sure nothing of the laboratory would be left standing afterwards before starting to work their way out to their designated exit. Which was naturally when all hell broke loose.</p><p>They hadn’t gone five steps beyond the laboratory before klaxons started to shriek and the sound of pounding feet echoed up the corridor. “What did you do?” Rex growled at Tunstall even as he fired his un-silenced Beretta into the first unfortunate soul to show himself down at the further end of the hallway.</p><p>“Don’t look at me; we cleared the room before we did anything. No alarms, no trackers.” Anyone who didn’t know Tunstall well would miss the tension in his voice, but Rex had worked with him for long enough to recognize the tension for what it was and backed off.</p><p>“Then they must have set a trap, knowing we were coming.” The statement was delivered in a matter-of-fact tone of voice, but Hamilton shivered. Apparently, he’d been around long enough to know that Rex was the most reasonable right before he blew his stack. Rex blinked away the red mist vying with the black spots at the edge of his vision and shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. We’ve got a job to do, let’s get to it.”</p><p>The four of them moved along hallways by fire and movement, Hamilton and Weber on one side with Tunstall and Rex on the other. Resistance mounted as they moved, and during one particularly long shootout Tunstall moved up to the same overturned metal table Rex was using for cover and dropped down beside him. “You’re bleeding,” Tunstall murmured in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the gunfire but not carry to the other side of the wide hallway they found themselves in. “And have been this entire time.”</p><p>Rex grimaced; Tunstall was a perceptive bastard. “Patrol bastard got me with a knife. I did what I could.” Running and shooting was making worse, he didn’t say. Blood was still oozing out, he didn’t say. He was short of breath with black edging his vision, and pretty much the only thing keeping him upright was adrenaline, he didn’t say.</p><p>He likely wasn’t going to make it back, he didn’t say.</p><p>Tunstall heard him anyway. “They’ve moved up ordinance disposal teams; I noticed a few in the last mob we dropped,” he said instead and Rex cursed under his breath. They had less time than he’d thought.</p><p>“What we’ve already got in place will take down most of the superstructure,” he said, and Tunstall nodded.</p><p>“Any way to test the remote detonators?” he asked. Rex shrugged, pulled out a small brick of plastique, typed a detonation frequency into the detonator different than the one he had been using, and tossed the brick. It landed with an audible thud between the two sides of the fire fight and Rex adjusted his detonator to the single frequency before slamming down on the button.</p><p>Nothing.</p><p>Tunstall cursed this time and shot the last remaining enemy before turning to the other half of their team. “We have a problem,” he said without preamble, and laid out the issue as cleanly and concisely as any summary Rex’d ever heard. “Which means we need to take out the jammer. Where would it be located?” Tunstall looked over at Rex; Rex had to think about it for a hot second - the blood loss was really starting to do a number on his head - before answering.</p><p>“Roof. Anything lower and the walls would start interfering across the complex,” Rex grunted, and Tunstall nodded. “Fine. Then we need to take it out. Let’s go.”</p><p>Getting to the roof was easier said than done, and by the time they got there Rex was almost staggering. His sock on the bad side was soaked in blood, and it was all he could do to keep up. Fortunately, being half-underground the roof wasn’t actually all that far up or Rex wouldn’t have made it at all.</p><p>Their exit put them slantways across the roof from their target, and the welcoming committee around it didn’t make anything easier. There were one or two air re-circulation units to provide some cover, but it took a long ten minutes for them to make it all the way to the antenna. And then they got there, they had another problem; how to destroy it.</p><p>Rigging it with timed explosives was all well and good, but any amount of time was time for the enemy to get a disposal team up here and remove it; they’d already had to repel one team who’d tried to come out the same door they had. Rex could feel Tunstall carefully not looking at him, and growled before grabbing the explosive out of Hamilton’s hands. “Get going,” he snarled as he set the timer and shoved the little bag into the main support on the antenna.</p><p>Weber saluted him but didn’t look surprised, and Tunstall merely nodded. Hamilton, though, looked like someone had just sucker-punched him, hands out like he was still holding the explosive Rex had grabbed out of them. “What?” he asked blankly, and Rex rolled his eyes before jerking his thumb at the retreating backs of Tunstall and Weber, heading for where the roof sloped down to less than ten feet off the ground.</p><p>“Go with them, Hamilton. I’ll make sure they don’t get the antenna. Mission first.” His words were firm, but when he straightened up he swayed on his feet. Hamilton’s eyes immediately went to the long trail of dark, wet cloth at Rex’s side and his eyes went flat.</p><p>“When,” he ground out, and Rex shook his head.</p><p>“The patrol. It’s been too long and I can’t keep up. Go,” he said insistently, but Hamilton stayed where he was and looked at him stubbornly.</p><p>“God<em>dammit</em> Hammer, get the fuck out of here and rendezvous with the other two, and that’s a goddamn order.” Rex disliked ordering Hamilton; the man knew his stuff, and didn’t need to have authority pushed in his face every time he showed initiative. But time was running out, measured in the steady beeps of the timer behind him, and just because it was the end of Rex’s line didn’t mean it needed to be the end of Hamilton’s.</p><p>The man paused for a second longer, the need to obey orders clearly warring with his desire to not obey them and possibly hoist Rex over his should and run for it, before snapping to attention and popping off a salute. “Staff Sergeant Daniels, it’s been an honor,” he said quietly, and Rex returned the salute stone-faced.</p><p>“Likewise, Sergeant Bruno Hamilton.”</p><p>Hamilton turned and started to go, only pausing a moment when Rex called after him. “And Hamilton!” The man glanced back and Rex grinned fiercely.</p><p>“Call me Rex.”</p>
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